In the continuation of the railway lies a vast area dotted with old carriages, totally abandoned this time: weeds grow on them. This visual atmosphere brings collapsology to mind (study of the civilizations fall); in contradiction with the sound environment: playground noise and school alarms are being heard. A paradox comes since the closer the camera gets from the urban centre the less maintained and used the Railway Path looks. To interpretation tracks are possible:
- The city does not necessarily become denser (in terms of population and uses) along a radial link leading to the centre. The urbanity (1)gradient isn’t continuous
- The decrease of anthropogenic density isn’t a sign of urbanity decline. The city isn’t fully planned (controlled) and is also made of wild areas (natural)
The reading of the map reveals the path axis isn’t strictly radial but sometime tangential to the suburbia. Each step forward will nonetheless bring closer to the city centre.
It is interesting to follow an old railway because the route had to always be flat to ensure the trains circulation. The neighbourhood topography is therefore revealed: the road used to be on an embankment, it is now in a pit. Such a situation increases the insulation that can be felt here: the place is out of the city; the city is above. Excluded, the former train track is let off any redesign opportunity, and will remain in its abandoned condition, witnessing its fall.
The city will eventually sit lower and integrate the road. Houses can be seen, and numerous access lanes connect them to the path, that is no longer only a mobility infrastructure but also a walk area.
(1) Urbanity :
“The urbanity brings to mind, in the common sense, a quality of individuals behaving politely with others, in a second meaning, peculiar to geography, the urban character of a place.
In this second meaning, the urbanity can be defined as issued from the combination of density and diversity of society object in a place.” (Lussault, 2003)